If other forms of meat suddenly became too expensive, would you feed dog meat to your family instead? Sadly, this is a dilemma that many families in China are facing right now. As I reported a few days ago, one-fourth of all the pigs in the entire world have already been wiped out by African Swine Fever. The epicenter of this crisis is in China, and as you will see below, their hog population has fallen by more than 40 percent so far. This has caused a dramatic spike in the price of pork, and as a result many Chinese citizens are now seeking out less expensive alternatives.
Here in the western world, many of us would never even consider eating a dog. But in many Asian countries this used to be a widespread practice, and now it is experiencing a huge resurgence. The following comes from a WND article entitled “China turning to dog meat as pork prices skyrocket”…
As the price of pork, the most popular meat in China, continues to skyrocket in the wake of a livestock epidemic, citizens of the communist nation are turning to dog meat as a substitute.
Pork prices have shot up 69 percent thanks to the market-killing effects of African swine fever, putting the meat out of reach for many Chinese.
The Chinese have been importing more pork than ever before by a very wide margin, but it isn’t enough.
Normally, the Chinese produce about as much pork as the rest of the world combined, but that isn’t going to happen this year as African Swine Fever continues to ravage their country. According to the South China Morning Post, China’s live hog population is now down 41.1 percent…
African swine fever has swept through China’s pig population, leading to mass culls that are expected to take years to recover from.
The country’s live hog population, which accounted for about half of the global total in 2018, had fallen 41.1 per cent at the end of September from a year earlier, according to a survey of 400 counties by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. It is unclear how much further it will fall before it bottoms out.
As I discussed in a previous article, it is being estimated that 150 million pigs have died in China.
To put that in perspective, there are only about 70 million pigs in the United States.
So if you killed every pig in the United States, and then you did it again, the total would still be less than the total number of pigs that have already died in China.
And this crisis is still in the early stages. African Swine Fever has already spread to nearly 50 nations, and at this point approximately 25 percent of all the pigs in the world have already died.
I really don’t understand why the mainstream media in the U.S. is not giving this more coverage. In some parts of rural China, the price of pork has more than doubled since this time last year…
In a supermarket in the county’s town centre, the price of lean pork was 72 yuan (US$10) per kilogram while pork rib cost 74 yuan (US$10.50) a kilogram – more than double what was being charged a year ago and at least as high as prices in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
“Pork only cost a dozen yuan per 500 grams last year, now it’s more than 30 yuan,” said Liang Meilu, who runs five small kindergartens across the county.
And as African Swine Fever continues to spread, the global pork shortage is only going to intensify.
Meanwhile, a massive winter storm that is going to hit the heartland of the U.S. on Halloween is causing a tremendous amount of stress for Midwest farmers…
“This is no joke, as a winterlike storm has the potential to put down a swath of heavy snow over a 750-mile long swath of the Heartland prior to the end of this week,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said.
“By midweek, a powerful storm will erupt out of the South and track northeastward across the country,” Issac Longley, AccuWeather meteorologist, said.
This has already been the worst year for Midwest farmers in ages, and this storm is coming at a very critical time when most farmers are still trying to get their crops harvested.
According to the latest forecast, there will be heavy snow from Iowa to Michigan…
Currently, the heaviest snow is expected to fall from near the Iowa/Illinois border northeastward through part of northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northern Michigan.
Confidence is high among forecasters that a swath of heavy snow will develop and impact major cities such as Madison, Wisconsin, Rockford, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa.
Because of the very heavy rain earlier in the year, many farmers faced substantial delays in getting their crops planted, and those farmers desperately needed good weather at this time of the year to give their crops time to fully mature.
According to the latest Crop Progress Report, only 41 percent of all U.S. corn has been harvested at this point…
In its weekly Crop Progress Report, the USDA pegged the U.S. corn harvest at 41% complete, below the trade’s expectation of 48% and below a five-year average 61%.
Minnesota is behind the most regarding picking corn: 22% vs. a 56% five-year average.
And now a monster winter storm is heading their way that could totally ruin harvest season.
We have entered a time when we are facing multiple threats to the global food supply simultaneously, and nobody is quite sure what this is going to mean for 2020 and beyond.
In China, things have already gotten so bad that they are turning to dog meat on a widespread basis. I could never imagine doing such a thing, but when people get hungry they get very desperate.
And desperate people do desperate things.
As Americans, we like to think that there will always be enough food for everyone, but thanks to African Swine Fever and shifting global weather patterns things are rapidly changing.
We truly are in uncharted territory, and unfortunately we are only in the very early chapters of this emerging crisis.
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